I'm on a bit of a horror game kick at the moment. What are everyone's favourite horror games? Have you ever been genuinely scared by a game? Is the genre just becoming tired?

Recommend me something good, or link to some hilarious playthrus.

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I can't play horror games. I get way too scared. I can watch horror movies or watch someone else play a horror game just fine, but when I'm playing I feel like I'm a part of it in a completely different way.

My brother is the complete opposite of me in that regard. He doesn't afraid of anything. I remember once when a mutual friend for some reason wanted to see him play through Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. It probably would have been much more interesting to watch me try to play it. I'm not sure if he knew just how fearless my brother actually is, but if he wasn't I assume he was kind of disappointed that he didn't get to see him get scared. Someone who did get scared though was another friend, sitting behind us, who decided to start playing Guile's theme from his laptop whenever he felt it got too scary.

Much more recently I found this 23-episode-playthrough of that game (which I did find quite hilarious)

There's also been a sequel confirmed! The trailer is pretty rubbish, but it shows some pretty interesting changes from the original game:

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Raya wrote:I've come to the conclusion that Five Nights At Freddy's is the absolute best game to watch other people play.

I have an odd relationship with that game. My friends encouraged me to play it and they watched me do it and it was a lot of fun, but the gameplay itself was a bit uninteresting to me in the sense that it really felt like a "try it over and over until you get lucky" sort of thing, so I didn't play it for very long past level 2.

That said, I then spent several hours on the wiki for the game and on various forums reading about the depth of the storyline, fan theories, and the history. The atmosphere of the game is done really well and it's undoubtedly an incredibly unique experience that I'd suggest to anyone.

Other than that, I don't play many horror games. Being scared is great and all, but it's really easy for me to get turned off by minor gameplay issues unless the atmosphere is truly stellar. I tried playing Amnesia, but the screen flashes white whenever the protagonist has a flashback, and as I'm more photosensitive than most people, that alone made it almost unplayable for me. It's beyond me why a game would encourage you to play with the lights off and then regularly blind you with these sudden white flashes.

That said, I then spent several hours on the wiki for the game and on various forums reading about the depth of the storyline, fan theories, and the history. The atmosphere of the game is done really well and it's undoubtedly an incredibly unique experience that I'd suggest to anyone.

Other than that, I don't play many horror games. Being scared is great and all, but it's really easy for me to get turned off by minor gameplay issues unless the atmosphere is truly stellar. I tried playing Amnesia, but the screen flashes white whenever the protagonist has a flashback, and as I'm more photosensitive than most people, that alone made it almost unplayable for me. It's beyond me why a game would encourage you to play with the lights off and then regularly blind you with these sudden white flashes.

I think what impressed me most with Freddy's is the fact the graphics aren't actually in 3D, they're actually 2D that's been rendered to look 3D. I had absolutely no idea until I read about it in an article. That's really some achievement.

Totally agreeing with you on the flashing lights. As much as I loved the game, that's what really cheesed me off about Layton vs Wright; every time a character says something remotely surprising the screen blinks. Sometimes it was happened every few seconds. It's annoying and hurts your eyes. I do wish games would learn to use such things sparingly instead of blinding you all the time.

_________________HG/SS Friends Code: 2364 8721 9695B/W Friends Code: 2193 7770 9554 X/Y Friends Code:1805-2682-3033"Foxes never lose their tricks, do they?" - Quaetman"We'll be going about our business one day and then someone will be like "hm, where's Barda" and Raya will all suspiciously be like "WELL DON'T LOOK AT ME"..." - Rocket Admin CamillaKing Avalanche:

I am a scared little bitch for most horror games, though jump scares tend to wear thin. No, what gets me is atmospheric horror games- so certain portions of amnesia, all of silent hill, etc... that shit fucks me right up.

As far as horror games go, I don't really play many, but I guess 999 would count as one?

TD260 wrote:I am a scared little bitch for most horror games, though jump scares tend to wear thin. No, what gets me is atmospheric horror games- so certain portions of amnesia, all of silent hill, etc... that shit fucks me right up.

As far as horror games go, I don't really play many, but I guess 999 would count as one?

Games which genuinely inflict dread are the best. Jump scares just make you jump, they ain't scary, but being scared in anticipation of something is terrifying. Fragile Dreams was amazing at this since you often heard the ghosts before you saw them. At one point I'd entered a new area, walked down a pathway and suddenly heard a bellow from a ghost I didn't recognise. Shat a brick and literally turned round and ran back the way I came. Actually facing the ghost later on didn't make it any better.

I've been on the look out for 999 for ages, then it turned out that it never got released in Europe because Nintendo are dicks. Maybe I should get it on import- what's your opinion of it?

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TD260 wrote:I am a scared little bitch for most horror games, though jump scares tend to wear thin. No, what gets me is atmospheric horror games- so certain portions of amnesia, all of silent hill, etc... that shit fucks me right up.

As far as horror games go, I don't really play many, but I guess 999 would count as one?

Games which genuinely inflict dread are the best. Jump scares just make you jump, they ain't scary, but being scared in anticipation of something is terrifying. Fragile Dreams was amazing at this since you often heard the ghosts before you saw them. At one point I'd entered a new area, walked down a pathway and suddenly heard a bellow from a ghost I didn't recognise. Shat a brick and literally turned round and ran back the way I came. Actually facing the ghost later on didn't make it any better.

I've been on the look out for 999 for ages, then it turned out that it never got released in Europe because Nintendo are dicks. Maybe I should get it on import- what's your opinion of it?

If, and only if, you enjoy visual novels, it is a fantastic game with replayability due to the multiple different endings.

If you're not a fan of visual novels, it's still pretty great, but you're better off looking for a guide to get the ending required for the "true" ending and then going for the "true" ending.

The sequel, Zero Escape, Virtue's Last Reward for the 3DS, is far superior gameplay wise. Story/character wise, I personally vastly prefer the characters in 999. Also, 999 is still using the Ace Attorney style "2D character over a background with some 3D elements" and VLR swaps over to a full 3D experience.

Aaaaaaanyway, the game is really good, very well done for creating a sense of dread, only complaint I have is some routes can get repetitive if you go for all of them, and the music, (while good) is somewhat limited, so expect to hear the same theme for a decent chunk of the game. (and then hear a new theme and be floored by it because it's good, and also new)

I...really don't know about this. I love FNAF, the first game is an absolutely classic horror game, and the lore is the cherry on the cake. 2 and 3 were passable, but nowhere near as good as the first. Do we *really* need a fourth game? Where on earth are they going to take it from here? It really smacks as being a shameless cashcow, even though Scott has insisted this is the final game. I'm not holding my breath on that...

_________________HG/SS Friends Code: 2364 8721 9695B/W Friends Code: 2193 7770 9554 X/Y Friends Code:1805-2682-3033"Foxes never lose their tricks, do they?" - Quaetman"We'll be going about our business one day and then someone will be like "hm, where's Barda" and Raya will all suspiciously be like "WELL DON'T LOOK AT ME"..." - Rocket Admin CamillaKing Avalanche:

I...really don't know about this. I love FNAF, the first game is an absolutely classic horror game, and the lore is the cherry on the cake. 2 and 3 were passable, but nowhere near as good as the first. Do we *really* need a fourth game? Where on earth are they going to take it from here? It really smacks as being a shameless cashcow, even though Scott has insisted this is the final game. I'm not holding my breath on that...

My friends are like 90% sure that the guy is doing it to take the mickey out of the Game Theory people.

I...really don't know about this. I love FNAF, the first game is an absolutely classic horror game, and the lore is the cherry on the cake. 2 and 3 were passable, but nowhere near as good as the first. Do we *really* need a fourth game? Where on earth are they going to take it from here? It really smacks as being a shameless cashcow, even though Scott has insisted this is the final game. I'm not holding my breath on that...

My friends are like 90% sure that the guy is doing it to take the mickey out of the Game Theory people.

God I hope that is true. I never played a FNAF game but love following the lore on Game Theory.

Anyone else played Until Dawn? It's very well done - complete with cheesy acting, a total lack of lighting, and characters making naturally horrible decisions and suffering equally horrible consequences. I've watched a couple letsplays of it (since I don't have a PS4 to experiment with myself) and I/m really curious to see how branching the story actually is - it always seems to follow a similar arc from beginning to end.

I've also recently watched a Let's Play of Until Dawn (yay for watching other people play games). If I had a PS4 I'd consider getting it too cause it seems really engaging and replayable. I don't relaly like teen slasher movies because they're complete with the thing Q mentioned, but it works with Until Dawn.

Q, the overall story arc is the same, but certain characters can die in multiple different parts of the game depending on your decisions or whether or not you find certain items when playing. They seem to really make use of the butterfly effect mechanic. It's not like there are a million very unique outcomes, but you can look into a wiki of the game if you want to spoil some of the effects.

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Smashy B wrote:Q, the overall story arc is the same, but certain characters can die in multiple different parts of the game depending on your decisions or whether or not you find certain items when playing. They seem to really make use of the butterfly effect mechanic. It's not like there are a million very unique outcomes, but you can look into a wiki of the game if you want to spoil some of the effects.

How many ways can Emily die. Dear god that character.

In all seriousness I'd love to see them make a longer sequel (maybe heavy-rain length) with a deeper and more intricate chance for character development. The more attached you become to the characters, the more effective this entire genre becomes.

It is good to see a fairly new horror style entering the mix though: Yes, jumpscares are everywhere, but I actually feel Until Dawn is really based on how a series of small things add up to either a character's eventual demise or salvation. Some deaths look totally helpless to escape, but are entirely survivable if you notice a clue earlier.

For example:

Spoiler:

Reading that Wendigos can imitate human voices will probably deter a player from opening that rattling door with Jess' voice... saving Ashley and potentially Chris. Matt also doesn't get fishhooked if he has the flare gun you can find earlier.

Quaetam wrote:It is good to see a fairly new horror style entering the mix though: Yes, jumpscares are everywhere, but I actually feel Until Dawn is really based on how a series of small things add up to either a character's eventual demise or salvation. Some deaths look totally helpless to escape, but are entirely survivable if you notice a clue earlier.

For example:

Spoiler:

Reading that Wendigos can imitate human voices will probably deter a player from opening that rattling door with Jess' voice... saving Ashley and potentially Chris. Matt also doesn't get fishhooked if he has the flare gun you can find earlier.

Yes.

Spoiler:

Also, you can still have Emily give Matt the Flare gun, but I believe whether he survives also depends on whether or not he fires the flare gun in the air when Emily gives it to him, and that depends on prior choices in the game, of which I'm not sure of. I also heard that he can live if you just to immediatly jump off the falling tower instead of trying to save Emily, but I'm not sure about that and I don't know how that would avoid him from being grabbed by the Wendigo.

_________________Keeper of the keysllllllllllllllll llllSteam: smashbro8153DS/Pokemon X&Y: 1048-8610-9932"I wish I had a magical spaceship made of yellow ideas that could go in space with like a tiger wearing a purple flower, and everything would be colored happyness:)" - SurgePox"All Pokemon are just Ditto anyway" - Raya"Krystal's Ok. But what about Umbreon. Now thats a sexy Pokemon, like a sports car." - Dismal